| dc.description.abstract | Background. Economic demands, new technologies and flexibility of national and international legislation
led to the development of various migration and employment patterns. One of the highly promoted but little
researched pattern is circular migration. Such migration is common between higher and lower living cost
countries that are relatively close to each other like Norway and Lithuania. Norway is a high-income country
with one of the highest inflow of labour migration between the OECD countries. Whilst Lithuania is a highincome
but low-cost country known as a provider of labour migrants. Today, Lithuanians are the second by
size group of migrant workers in Norway which, however, remains under-researched. Circular migration not
only benefited Norwegian industries, but also challenged the social welfare policy makers with new
problems like social dumping. Therefore, as Lithuanian labour circular migrants are a significant group in
Norway, they make a relevant sample for a case study of circular labour migrants in a context of social
welfare.
Research questions. This paper aims to gather more descriptive and explanatory data about how Lithuanian
circular migrants approach social welfare while wandering between home country and Norway, and how
Lithuanian and Norwegian welfare states support circular migrants and their families coping capabilities.
Methods. The research consists of two major parts. First one is an online forum content analysis, which was
performed as a pilot to gather more knowledge about Lithuanians’ concerns and problems while migrating to
Norway (in case of circular migration and not only). It also served as a tool to narrow down an extremely
broad topic of social welfare and to prepare a more accurate interview guide for the following research part.
The second method comprises eight semi-structured interviews with 11 respondents, which provided
comprehensive data to the research questions.
Conclusions. This study has provided with a broader knowledge of Lithuanian circular migrants’ perceptions
and experiences in accessing social welfare on a transnational level. Nevertheless, attempts to understand
this phenomenon better, led to a development of a conjoint theoretical framework of coping capabilities.
Circulation, as a coping capability, is common between people with short-term problem-solving preferences
and high degree of wish to be in control. Circular migrant and their families tend to rely on the Norwegian
market for the provision of social welfare, with little expectations from the states. Norway supports coping
capabilities of circular migrant by providing access to public healthcare, strictering the regulations related to
employment and housing, and developing a circular migrant friendly taxation policy. Lithuanian welfare state
supports coping capabilities of circular migrant indirectly by targeting his family members that live in the
home country. | en |
